The dreams started the way they always did for her. She would be standing in front of a mirror, her slender form reflected back at her. She would see her reaching out to touch the reflection, to see if it...if she was real. She didn't find it surprising that the reflection was nude. It was as if she was always that way and it was normal for her. She would then see herself running her hands down her body admiring the way she looked.

Suddenly, the scene would shift and a man would be standing behind her. He was a tall, slender man and yet, there was power in him. His body was a taut and muscular lean. Sleek. Panther like. His eyes were a compelling shade of molten gold and his hair the black of a raven's wing. It flowed around his shoulders like a cape. His hands on her body made her feel things that she never dreamed possible. She felt herself drawn to his power. Lured to him. She knew without a doubt that she had wanted him, that a part of her needed this man and it wasn't because of the drugs they fed her. A part of her that she had kept buried, buried in her work, buried in her deepest heart, had burned for this man. That it was not just Ezili that had wanted him, but Samantha Carter had wanted him.

The scene shifted. She was now lying on a bed. The figure of a man loomed over her. At first it was the man with the eyes of gold, his black hair falling like a curtain over them. The golden eyes appeared to glow, but only for a minute, before they changed. The man above her now had hair that glinted silver in the light of the braziers, his eyes a dark and deep shade of brown. Desire was evident in their depths.

That was always when she would awaken: heart pounding, gasping for breath, but not out of fear, because of loss. A loss she couldn't put into words. A loss of something so beautiful and so intense; something that really could never have happened. Could it? Could the desire that she buried so deep really have happened? Was it really him? Did they really? And if it had, why hadn't she remembered, except in her dreams? And why...why did he tell her that nothing had changed?

Colonel Jack O'Neill sat in front of the campfire. He had been idly throwing bits of twigs and leaves into the fire. He watched the way the colors of the flames went from yellow, to orange to blue and back again.

He shifted slightly on the log and looked toward the tent he shared with his second. Most missions, lately, he doubled his shift. Sometimes taking hers or Teal'c's or Daniel's. He found that if he was really tired, the dreams didn't hijack his imagination. Unfortunately, the times that he did dream, his body willingly followed and sometimes that lead to embarrassing moments. Thankfully, the dreams occurred in the privacy of his own home, and not on a mission.

He sometimes noted that Carter was looking at him when she thought he didn't notice. And ordinarily, he supposed, he wouldn't notice, but what happened in that room, heightened his awareness of her. Not that he was never 'aware' of her. Hell, she had his attention the first time she walked through the door into the briefing room.

Things, however, had changed. He'd had a taste of her passion and wanted more. He wanted her to know it had been *him* and that he wanted her as much now, as...

He remembered the last dream, right before they left for this mission.

(She was standing in front of him and she was simply the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. Tonight she was positively luminous. Then she stepped into his arms. The arms that had meant to hold her back and away from him, not hold her close to him He intended to direct her to the window so they could get out of the room, but somehow, he hadn't the strength to let her go. Suddenly, her hands were on either side of his face and her mouth settled on his. Her tongue snaked out and demanded entrance and he opened his mouth for her. The kiss lit a fire in him that he hadn't known could burn so hot. Suddenly, nothing else was real for him. When she stepped out of his arms and let her nightgown drop gracefully around her body to the floor, he almost forgot how to breathe. The next thing he knew he was looming over her body on the bed. Her arms were out to welcome him and then...there was nothing between them, not even the air that they breathed.)

That scene always had him waking up with his heart pounding and his body hard and ready. And then sleep eluded him.After one particularly memorable dream he felt the need to talk with someone, anyone actually, but he knew that talking to his team, no matter how supportive, would complicate things more. Teal'c knew far more than was good for him and Danny? Well Danny was a bright and intelligent young man, capable of putting two and two together and insisting that he help them work through this difficult situation. Gotta love him, Jack thought, if he didn't want sometimes to kill him.

(He picked up the phone and dialed. Okay, so it was 4 AM mountain time, but it was daytime on the east coast, wasn't it?
The voice on the other end of the phone was tired. It was not the voice of someone that was awakened by an early phone call, but of someone that had yet to see their bed.

"Hey," Jack responded to her answer.

"Hey, yourself." A yawn. "What's up?"

"Obviously, you are," Jack answered with a small amount of humor in his voice. "I called your house and got your machine. Why are you there so early?"

"Well, actually, idiot that I am, I haven't been to bed yet."

Jack laughed. "On call this weekend?"

"Oh, yeah, I am out of here as soon as I finish up these reports. Then maybe five hours of sleep before I get to do this again."
There was a period of silence and the voice asked him why he was calling.

"Must be something serious for you to call this early."

"Yeah, it is," he answered. "Got time for a long story?"

"I'm all yours," was the reply.

Jack then started to talk. He told of the kidnapping, the rescue and the interaction between Carter and him. His heart and his head were at war with what to call what happened. Sex? Love? He just didn't know anymore. It was too jumbled in his head. When he had finished speaking, his friend was silent. Jack listened to the sound of breathing and when he thought that maybe the shock was too much, he got a response.

"I have a really nutty idea," the voice began. It was trying to be lighthearted, but the gravity of the situation did not escape either of them. What Jack was trying to avoid and what his friend knew he had to do, were really the same.

"And that would be?" Jack asked. He really, already, did know the answer.

"That would be to tell her. She needs to know the truth. She needs to hear it. From you. And soon. Yesterday would have been good time.""That would cause problems."

"What would cause problems is if she shows up on your doorstep? Though that might be better than her showing up in your office. You have to tell her. You have to be the one to tell her. She won't believe anything you have to say about it not changing anything between the two of you if you leave it to her to confront you."

He knew that was true. He knew without a doubt that things might be difficult if he talked to Sam, but worse if she had to confront him.

"Don't wait too long," the voice advised. "Things like that have a tendency to up and bite you on the ass."

"Yeah," Jack acknowledged. "I know. Thanks."

"No problem. You know I would do anything for you."

"I know and I love you."

"I love you too. I'm here if you need me."

Jack very softly answered, "I know." Soon the call ended. Jack put the receiver down and laid back against the pillows.
He knew that he had to tell her. The question was not so much when, but how. And besides, he had heard that 'tell her now' speech before. Fraiser told him the same thing.

"Better sooner than later, Colonel" she had told him.)

So, here he was, trying hard to avoid the whole situation that he knew could explode at any minute. Colonel Jack O'Neill, scourge of the Goa'uld, afraid to talk to his second-in-command. What a life.

Dambala looked at the woman he has with. His body poised over hers, taut with the passion of the moment.

He tried very hard the times he was with her to see the woman he really wanted; the woman with hair the color of a golden sun. Hair that felt like silk to his fingers and smelled like the sunshine to his senses. Eyes a shade of blue that resembled the color of the flowers on his home planet. Skin that was pale where it was hidden from the sun and dark where her time in the sunshine touched it.The woman writhing beneath him was ruby colored. Her eyes were the color of stormy sea, gray, with a certain turbulence in them, her body, smooth and hairless. Her race, however, was among the most passionate in the galaxy. She certainly knew very well how to please a man and he was most certainly pleased.

Even with his curtain of black hair hanging over the two of them, he could see every expression on her face.

Dambala knew this form of Ezili was already quick with child and in seven months time, a new Guardian would be born. He didn't really need to mate with this woman, but she satisfied his need for a woman quite well, almost as well as Baka. Maybe he wouldn't be so quick to send this woman away after the child was weaned.

Soon the woman let out a keening cry, which was then matched by his own groan of fulfillment.

He rolled off of her and she sat up and leaned over him, her eyes still showing the stormy gray of their interlude. He watched her as she leaned down to kiss him and was not surprised to find that he was ready for her again. She could satisfy him and herself as many times as she wished, he thought, for each time it would be his golden Ezili of the Tau'ri that he would be with.

Jack's thoughts about Sam were interrupted by the very person he was thinking about. He looked up to see her come out of the tent. He could tell that she hadn't had a restful night either.

"Carter?" he asked gently. "What's up?"

Major Samantha Carter, USAF, sat down on the log opposite her CO. Shrugging and throwing some of the twigs and leaves near her into the fire, she kept her eyes lowered, looking at the ground.

"Major?" Jack tried again.

"I had another one of those dreams, sir," Sam answered in a weary voice.

"Ah!" Jack responded, afraid of where this was going to go.

Sam looked up at him. The fine lines of stress played at her eyes, her lips and her forehead. "Sir, they had been getting less intense. I mean, I hardly ever thought about it." She mentally crossed her fingers. Like hell they had been getting less intense but Fraiser told her that if she was still having problems, she would need to take some time off and see a psychiatrist. Not!

Sam swallowed as she noticed her CO giving his patent 'and' look. She then looked down at the fire. Putting her hands together and then placing them on her lap. She was silent for a few minutes, gathering her thoughts. Sam noted that his eyes were dark with his concern and compassion. Hints of gold played about in them from the dancing of the firelight, an interesting phenomenon considering his eyes were a deep dark brown.

"Carter," Jack tried prodding her again.

"I have been getting these really strange, I don't know, feelings lately. Sir, what if he is looking for me?" Sam asked him. "What if the intensity of my dreams lately means he is looking for me? What if he has some psychic connection to me?"

That was one true thing that did bother her as it bothered Jack and the rest of the SGC. What if Dambala was looking for her?

"Carter, don't do this to yourself." Jack stood up and walked around to her side of the fire. He sat down on the log next to her. "Don't do this. Even if he was looking for you, he wouldn't be able to get to you. You know that."

Her eyes lifted to his. In the firelight they looked like a stormy sea. "Do I, Colonel? Really?" She looked back at the fire. "I keep remembering the strangest things."

Jack was silent and waited for her to finish.

Taking a breath, Sam looked at him again. "Are you sure, Sir, there was nothing that happened?" She stopped. "Between us I mean?"

"Carter, it was the drugs that they fed you. They kept you so off balance that it confused things in your mind. I got to the room, handed you to Teal'c and we got away. End of story."

Jack's response was firm. It was given in his best military correct tone. It was a tone that he knew his officer would respond to.

She swallowed and then nodded.

"Now go and get some rest Carter. Your watch is next in about," he looked at his watch, "two hours."

Sam smiled, slightly, nodded and went back into the tent.Watching her retreating back, Jack wondered how much penance he would need to do for that lie.

Dambala quietly got out of the bed he had just shared with Baka. He stood there watching the light of the moon glisten off her body. She was, he noted with satisfaction, quite a handful. Baka stirred sleepily, murmured and went back to sleep. Dambala then walked to the window and looked out onto his garden.

Dambala's planet was every bit as lush and verdant as the planet on which the ceremony had been celebrated. Looking out at the shadowed garden, he let his thoughts wander to his golden Ezili. His face hardened, as did his golden eyes. Molten gold, they had been described as, but here they were as hard as the element, in its purest form, was soft.

His body glistened in the night light. The oils that he and Baka had rubbed into each other and the natural sweat of their exertions caused his body to shine. He worked very hard to keep his body in shape. He felt that in order for him to be effective as a *God* he needed to make sure he looked like one. Perfection. Then, when he walked among the believers, they would see how well formed he was. Baka was the same, he knew. Her body caused many a believer to pass out from the lust incited by her. That and the incense used by them. That is how they controlled the most rebellious of the Chosen. That is how they managed to start to control Ezili, but she had still managed to get away.

Someone had dared take his Ezili from him. And not only that, he had taken her, had dared to taste her charms. Something that was a far more heinous a crime.

He would, he vowed, get her back. Even now he felt her body, tasted her skin, smelled her essence. Never before had one of the *Chosen* managed to arouse him as she had.

His spies were watching. All Goa'uld knew where the Tau'ri were. The address was well known. All he had to do was be patient. They would end up on a planet that would be vulnerable and then, well, then she would be under his control. She would be his.

The woman stirred restlessly on the bed. Her movements were not those of one in the throws of a nightmare, but a dream of a different kind.

The woman roused but sleepily, and after a few more urgent words, she opened her eyes. She had trouble focusing on whom it was she was seeing. Her sleeping self tried to force her dream self to focus on his face, but without any luck.

"Dambala?" she asked quietly. "Could you not wait until tomorrow night?"She shook her head, as if unable to understand the words of the man speaking to her. 'Carter,' he called her. Who was this Carter?

The woman got of the bed and walked over to the dresser. There she reached for the firestick and put it under the brazier to light the fire there. Following that she took a handful of the powder and threw it into the fire and soon the smell of the smoke became heavy and intoxicating. She turned around, surprised when she heard the man choke out an urgent 'No!"

She then reached for a jar that was near the brazier. It was filled with an oil the same scent as the smoke. She knew he was watching her now and that his eyes were starting to darken with the desire he was feeling for her. The desire he had always felt for her. That startled her: that revelation. Dambala had not set eyes on to her prior to the last four days. What was it that made her think that this man had always wanted her?

She seemed to know exactly when the scent of the heavily perfumed air had reached him and was beginning to do its work. It was a scent meant to tantalize the senses and heighten the sexual awareness of those that breathed it in. The spell of erotic desire and feelings countered the will to suppress these longings. It was designed so that the only focus would be of the other person in the room.

Walking over to him, she threw her arms around his neck, caressing the hair at the back.

"My love," she murmured. "I am so glad that you are here now."

Suddenly, she pressed her lips against his and her tongue pushed against them demanding entrance. She felt his resistance to her kiss and laughed; a sultry laugh that sounded almost foreign to her ears. He opened his mouth and allowed her tongue to enter and entwine with his. The groan he let out made her bolder. Sam's hand suddenly snaked down and found his penis. She stroked it through his pants but then pulled away.

"Why do you wear so many clothes my love?" She looked at him questioningly. "And what strange clothes as well."

Her nimble fingers started removing his gear and the man kept trying to stop her and kept referring to her as 'Sam', 'Major', 'Carter', but she was not to be deterred and none of what the man did stopped her. Soon, the man found himself losing the battle. The heavy scent that was around them and on her body started to immerse itself into him and she soon found that he stopped fighting her and started to help her.

She managed to undress him totally and smiled with delight."I did not realize how tall and muscular you are, my love." She was clearly enjoying looking at him. She walked up to him and started running her hands all over his body and kissing him wherever she felt the desire to do so.

She noted that his body was responding to her onslaught and that he was trying to keep himself form reacting and responding to her. She knew that it would become impossible. The smoke would soon cause him to feel as if his mind was separating itself from his body and that all he would soon care about would be feeling. The only feeling would be the overwhelming need to join with her.

She spun away from him, standing to loosen the jeweled frogs that held on her nightgown. The gown fell to the floor in a silent swish of blue silk and she stood naked before him.

Sam held out her arms to him. "It is time for us to stop torturing each other, my love."

The man was now unable to deny his body its relief. He stepped over to her and took her into his arms. She felt his hands rubbing over her body. He started with her hair and telling her that it felt like silk to the touch. She shuddered slightly as he brought his nose close to the sensitive spot behind her right ear. She felt him place his lips onto hers and kiss her. She felt that she must possess his next breath, the way his mouth seemed to take possession of hers. His strong arms pulled her closer to him as if he was trying to absorb her body into his. Her arms started traveling his body as well and finally she broke away and led him by the hand to her bed.

She lay on her back and beckoned for him to come to her, to come into her and to fill her.

The man kneeled next to her on the bed and ran his hands down her body. His black hair hung over both of them like a curtain. His eyes were the color of liquid gold in their passion, glinting every so slightly as he looked in her eyes. It was then that the face of the man in her dream started to shift and to change. The black waterfall of hair that was cascading over both of them suddenly became shorter and silver in color. The swirling gold of his eyes started to darken, and the gold started to give way to become honey colored and then they became a shade of brown that Sam always likened to a Hershey bar. Deep and dark in their intensity. It was then that her dream self got a good look at his face.

Sam suddenly sat up, gasping for breath, her heart pounding in her ears. The man in her dreams, the man that had loved her on that planet was not Dambala. That face belonged not to Dambala, but to another man she knew quite well. The face belonged to no other than...

Jack O'Neill was sitting in his living room on his recliner. Drunk. Again. Sam's dreams were not the only ones increasing in intensity. Jack had started to wonder about what Sam had said. Was the intensity of her dreams an indication that Dambala was reaching out to her? Did he and Baka have some way of remaining connected to the women they had tried to use for their ceremony? Could she possibly be right? Were the intensity of the dreams and the return of the memory a warning? Was Dambala coming? If so, when?

He took another swig of his beer and contemplated the snowy screen of his television set. Suddenly, a loud pounding at his door roused him from his stupor.

"What the hell?" he asked himself as he got up and went to the door. There he confronted a hurriedly dressed and very angry Major. "Carter?" he asked, confused.

Without warning, her right hand snaked out and slapped him hard against his left cheek.

"You bastard!" she snarled at him. "You lying son of a bitch."

Grabbing her hands Jack dragged her into the house, looking around to make sure no one saw the scene.

"Carter, what the hell are you doing?" he asked her, his voice rough with confusion and the cloud of the alcohol.

"You lied to me, sir," she answered angrily. "You swore..."

She suddenly lurched away from him and sat on the recliner he had just vacated. Seeing her tear stained eyes lifted to look at him, Jack felt his heart lurch. 'She knows!' was his first coherent thought.

Swallowing, Jack sat across from her on the sofa. "Carter?" he questioned in a softer tone.

Sam took a deep breath and the eyes that looked straight into his were a brighter blue because of the tears. "You told me nothing happened. You lied."

"Nothing with Dambala did happen, Carter." Jack tried to keep his voice steady and used his 'I'm the superior officer here' tone to keep things level. It didn't work.

She stood up suddenly. Pointing the index finger of her right hand at him. "No, it wasn't Dambala was it, Jack?"

Jack stood up then and moved around his coffee table to stand directly across from his officer.

"What do you think you remember, Major?"

"Don't go all superior officer on me. I know exactly who it was and what happened."

"Well," Jack challenged her, "who was it and what exactly happened?""You lying bastard. I thought I could trust you. I thought I was safe with you."

It was then he realized that she did know it was he. His stomach gave a slight turn and there was a sour taste in his mouth.
"I never...I never would have ..."

"You never what, Carter? Thought that ...what?" He was deliberately trying to goad her now. Let her vent her spleen and then they could move on.

"I know that you don't think of me in that way."

Jack cocked his head. "In what way Carter?"

Her blue eyes turned to look deep into his brown ones and she really looked at him now. She saw something in them that she hadn't seen in a very long time: Desire.

"That you wanted me," she finished.

Jack grabbed her forearms and shook her. "You think that because you aren't flat on your back right now its because I don't desire you?" Jack quickly pulled her to him and kissed her and before she could gather her wits to either respond or slap him he pushed her away from. " Now do you understand?" He looked down at the floor and then in a resigned voice he told her, "I'm drunk, Sam. Go home."

He very roughly pushed her towards the door. She tried to turn around to look at him, but he ran his right hand gently down her left cheek. They shared at look that was both tender and confused in its regard.

Sam left hurriedly and Jack leaned against the door. This settled nothing. When he was sober and she was less what? Shocked? Angry? There would be hell to pay. And when the devil collected his due, what would become of them?

The briefing two weeks after Jack and Sam's confrontation was a tense one. The week before Sam had requested and had been granted leave to visit her brother. Jack had gone to Minnesota hoping that 'fishing' would settle his mind and his 'gut'.The two officers came back to a relationship that was both constrained and restrained. Daniel noted that neither of them looked directly at each other and spoke either through himself or Teal'c. Daniel also noted General Hammond's confused look. Daniel was aware that the General managed to allow his officers, especially these two, the latitude to work through difficulties on their own. How long, he wondered, would Hammond allow this to go on?

Once dismissed, the officers went their separate ways. The men's locker room was silent. Teal'c and Daniel didn't dare say anything to Jack. His face, manner, demeanor was closed. Jack's eyes were shuttered as well. Daniel swore that when he looked into them, he saw nothing there. The two silently followed their leader to the 'gate room and met up with an equally quiet and closed-off Major Carter. Daniel and Teal'c shared a look and then went to stand next to their 'chosen' companion for the mission: Daniel with Sam and Teal'c with Jack.

Jack preferred his office dark these days, better to hide in the darkness. He tipped his chair backwards and sat with his feet on his desk. His hands were steepled and his fingers were resting on his lips. He thought that if his conversations with Carter were going to continue in the 'Sir' and 'Major' mode, he might decide that retirement would be worth it.

The mission had gone well, just your general 'let's see what we can find'. She had been so militarily correct in speech and composure, he really felt like goading her just to get some other response, but, of course, he didn't. He had overheard her telling Doc Fraiser that her dreams were starting to really scare her. He didn't like hearing that Sam was now having olfactory memories. She could actually smell the incense now.

Jack had seriously considered asking Hammond to re-assign her temporarily and begin conducting some serious searches for Dambala and his followers. Jack knew that Carter's temper would be really quite a force to be reckoned with when she found out what he had done or when what he was about to suggest to the General became a fact.

Jack knocked on Hammond's door and entered at his response. Once he had settled in the leather captain's chair across from Hammond's desk, the conversation began.

"What is it Colonel?" Hammond asked him. The General noted that O'Neill's eyes were focused on the pictures behind his desk. He also noted how very still his officer was. Colonel O'Neill was normally a ball of energy that seemed to vibrate from the inside out.The minutes stretched and George wondered if Jack was really certain of what he was coming in for. Jack could be impulsive to a point, but only to a point. When it concerned the welfare of his team or others in the SGC he was very deliberate.
"Colonel?" Hammond asked again.

Jack looked up, blinked slightly and then spoke.

"I am requesting that you temporarily assign Major Carter to either the SGC lab or Area 51." Jack made his request without pre-amble.

"May I ask why, Colonel?"

Jack swallowed and then sighed. "I can't really explain this, sir, but I believe that the if the Major travels off-world, at least for the time being, she will be in danger."

"How so, Colonel?" Hammond was curious.

"Major Carter has been having some flashes of what happened when she was abducted and the memories seem to be increasing in intensity, sir."

"And this is significant how?" Hammond prodded.

"She believes, and I agree, that maybe this Dambala guy is looking for her. If he is, I don't think that she is safe off-world."
George nodded and then asked, "Have you discussed this with Major Carter?"

Jack shook his head. "No, sir. I believe this to be a command decision. One that I feel would be in the best interest of my officer and the team."

Hammond looked at his officer. He sometimes wondered just how far SG-1 would go to protect each other. "I think maybe you are right, Jack. Do you want me to tell her?"

Jack shook his head. "My decision, sir. My job."

Jack walked out of Hammond's office. Well, he sounded firm and convinced, but he really wasn't either. He knew he was right. How Major Carter was going to feel about it? Well, that would be another story.

He headed toward her lab and hoped that the explosion would be a minor one.

As expected, Major Carter took his decision with protest. She argued. She questioned. She acquiesced."Carter you have to understand," he told her as he was leaving the lab. He could tell by the set of her shoulders and the straight set of her back that she didn't understand. "I am not going to risk your safety."

"You wouldn't do that to Teal'c or Daniel," she retorted, still not facing him.

Talking to her back, he responded, "It isn't the same, Major. Not even close."

He left before the argument started again. She wouldn't raise her voice, he knew that, but he would. That wouldn't do.
General Hammond transferred Major Carter to Area 51. He had managed to keep SG-1 on base for two weeks after the transfer. He was hoping that maybe it would give the team time to settle down and that Colonel O'Neill would be more amenable to her recall. However, there was a situation on one of the previously visited sites and Jack, Teal'c and Daniel needed to go. Hammond decided not to replace Major Carter. He had believed, that a replacement would have caused more problems than it would have solved.

Major Carter had been on the base for approximately 30 minutes before the proverbial shit hit the fan. She had been reluctantly resigned to Area 51 and had, much to her surprise, found the work to be stimulating and challenging. The call to return to the mountain had been made by Hammond in a rush. Something had happened and the only person that could fix it? Well, Major Samantha Carter.

Hammond had felt confident that it wouldn't require her to go off-world, so asking her to return for a short time would not put her in a dangerous situation. Unfortunately, Hammond forgot the old adage about being up to your neck in alligators. Something, he remembered afterwards, about draining the swamp first.

When Jack and his team emerged from the wormhole, the first thing he saw was Hammond standing there. The second thing was the look on Hammond's face.

"General?" he asked as they were disarming him.

Hammond remembered thinking, something along the line of "Thank God, he's unarmed."

"To my office, Colonel." Hammond answered him.

Jack took a quick look around the 'gate room and something in the air caused the hairs on the back of his neck to stand up. He gave a quick look to Daniel and Teal'c. They evidently also felt something had happened.Teal'c and Daniel took their seats, as did the General. Jack, however, did not. Something told him that sitting down would only cause him to jump up and knock over furniture.

"General?" he asked again, in that deceptively soft tone he saved for situations that required his full attention.

"Jack, please, sit down." General Hammond looked directly into the Colonel's eyes.

Jack noted that they were 'tired' looking. Usually a bright blue, they were now red-rimmed and dull, if one could apply that word to blue eyes.

After taking in Hammond's appearance, Jack sat.

"Colonel, Teal'c, Dr. Jackson..." Hammond blew out a breath. "It's Major Carter."

The heads snapped up immediately and Daniel asked the question. "How?"

The General shook his head and began, "We had a problem with the diagnostics that only Major Carter could fix. It was supposed to be an in and out."

"General Hammond?" Daniel prodded gently, while keeping an eye on a suddenly very still Colonel O'Neill.

"The Major and Sgt. Siler were pulling apart some components of the mainframe to replace and we got an emergency call from P3T-909." Swallowing before he continued, George hazarded a look at O'Neill. The Colonel looked like he was carved from stone. "The Major volunteered to fix the problem. It was supposed to take two hours. It extended to an overnight."

Jack lifted his head and stared at a point on the wall behind the general, but made no other movement or sound.

"When Captain Marx woke up to relieve her, she was gone. There were no signs of a struggle, but..."

"...he smelled the incense, didn't he?" Jack finished for him. "Damn."

George nodded. "Jack, there is more."

Jack's eyes narrowed and he nodded for the General to continue. "It was two days later. Somehow, whatever was used knocked them out. Marx didn't realize it until SG-21 came looking for them. Marx said that he noticed Major Carter wasn't where they left her and the air was heavy with that incense. It must have been a different combination or strength, because it really knocked them out."Jack's jaw worked furiously and his eyes darkened with the rage he was holding inside. Teal'c very slowly placed his left hand on Jack's right shoulder. Teal'c could feel the leashed emotions with that simple touch. Daniel had stood up and walked over to the window that looked out into the area outside of the General's office.

"We don't know where she is, do we, sir?" Daniel asked quietly. "Dambala has her and we don't know where she is."

The four men silently retreated into the mental hell that vision and knowledge provided them.

(Sam sat in front of the fire and relished being off-world. She did really enjoy her work at Area 51, but she really missed 'this' - the outdoors, the sights, the smells, the feeling of being *involved*.

Sitting up and stretching Sam also missed the snap of the twigs near her. She didn't however, have much a chance to react before *HE* was standing in front of her.

"You!" Sam breathed out and attempted to sound the alarm, but her hands were bound and she was gagged before she had a chance. Dambala's people were quick, efficient and silent.

"Ezili." The voice that flowed with the sound of warm honey spoke, "At last." He stepped closer to the fire so that she might get a good look at him.

Dambala was a tall man and built along slender lines. He stood before her much as she had remembered him, dark black hair that hung like a curtain around his shoulders, eyes the color of molten gold, a long thin face, a strong straight nose, full lips, arched black eyebrows. He was wearing a loincloth at this time, but she remembered his nude body very well. Right now that memory invoked a dormant response in her. As if he knew what she was thinking, he suddenly gave her a slow smile. It didn't quite reach his eyes.

Sam's nose told him that they had used the incense, but it had a different twist to it. She felt herself reacting to it, not with lust, but with the need to sleep.

"Yes, Ezili, a sleeping draught for you and your men. But the one man I want is not here with you. Pity! It would have been fun to have him to play with for a while. Baka would love that."

He stepped in front of her then and placed his large hands on either side of her face. He ran his hands into her hair and smiled at the feel of it on and through his fingers. He then traced her eyebrows with his thumbs and looked into her eyes.

"I have you now, my Ezili. You will not escape your fate so easily this time."

Sam closed her eyes and moaned. Dambala heard the sound and smiled. Pulling off her gag he kissed her. The kiss was not a gentle one, but one that was more an assault on her senses. His tongue invaded her mouth and took possession of her. He felt her acquiescence. Signaling to his followers, they quickly gathered up their equipment and as silently as they had come, they left, but with one extra member.)

"How the hell could this have happened again?" Jacob Carter was struggling to control his anger.

"Jacob." Hammond tried to soothe him. "We'll find her. We were hoping that the Tok'ra might know of the home planet of these people."

Jacob shook his head. He sat down at the table in the briefing room and immediately put his head into his hands.

"How much more does that girl have to go through, George? How much?" Jacob's voice shook with the tears that he was afraid to shed.

Jack sat down next to Jacob. "Jacob, does anyone of the Tok'ra know anything at all about these people?"

Jacob lifted his head from his hands and steadily looked at the man next to him. He considered the man who as his daughter's CO and friend. Jacob wondered how Jack could be so calm right now. It was Jack that rescued Sam the first time, and more than once Jacob wondered what had happened on that planet. The rescue sounded so casual.

"I don't know, Jack. Selmak is thinking that he might have. There might be a record of them and two of the librarians are searching the data banks now. There is a possibility that a former disciple might be among our ranks."

"A former member?" Daniel's ears perked up. "Do you have a name?"

"Daniel...possibly, not for sure."

"Well, possibly could be yes, right?" Daniel persisted.

"Daniel," Jack responded with a hint of aggravation in his voice. "When you were a child did 'No' mean 'Maybe' and 'Maybe' mean 'Yes' in your household? Possibly means just that."

"Colonel!" Hammond's voice was sharp. "This will solve nothing."Jack immediately became quiet. He looked at Daniel and the man saw in his eyes that he was sorry and that the words were from fear and concern. Daniel nodded and turned back to Jacob.
"How soon do you think that you can contact this person?"

Jacob shrugged. "Daniel I have the devil's own time, lately, getting the time of day from the Tok'ra spies."

Jack let out a snort and Jacob continued. "Jack, did you really expect people to act differently because they are no longer on Earth?"

Turning once again to face Daniel and the others Jacob continued. "If these individuals are part of the Tok'ra, I will find them. Believe me."

Sighing, Jacob then told them, "These people are afraid. Cults have a real hold on their people and these lived and breathed this worship of Dambala and Baka. They combine the use of the incense and fear to control their worshippers. It has to be something really *big* to get them to leave. And they fear for their lives even after."

"Jacob, do what you can," Hammond told him. "But you understand, we really want it as soon as possible."

Jacob gave a short laugh, "Not any sooner or more possible than I do, George. It's my little girl."

The woman stirred sleepily on the bed. The gold-eyed man watched her stretching with an appreciative grin. "Ezili," he breathed softly. He enjoyed watching her sleep. She was very uninhibited while she slept. It was the one time he noticed that she actually let her true nature come out. She had no idea what watching her sleep did to him. They deliberately kept her sedated. She fought them like a tiger when they brought her back. She was more a wildcat than Baka in her anger. It would take time for the spirit of Ezili to re-inhabit her body. But it would be done. They just needed to be more patient and more judicious in the use of the drugs. This time, there would be no escape or mistakes.

It was sometime after she started to move that Sam started to come awake. She slowly stretched out while lying down and then sat up. She rubbed her scalp with her hands relishing the mini-massage she gave herself. However, upon opening her eyes, she felt her stomach drop. She realized that she was in a bedroom that was not her own. Looking down at herself, she noticed she was nude and then she took in her surroundings.

The look of shock on her face would have been funny, had she been someplace safe, but this wasn't someplace safe. She recognized the look of the room, if not the room itself. It resembled, very closely, her bedroom the last time Dambala and Baka had her. Wrapping the sheet around her. Sam slowly got out of the bed and walked around the room. The walls were of the same marble, but the windows, this time had glass...and bars.

'Huh!' she thought, 'Not taking any chances this time.' She walked over to where the door would be, if there were one, but there was an opening and guards. Without even looking at her they used their staffs to bar her way out.

Stepping back, Sam continued to peruse the room. 'Windows with bars and a door with guards - definitely not taking any chances this time.' She walked back to the bed and sat down on it. 'Guess the Colonel really did know what he was doing when he re-assigned me... this time."

After a few minutes, she let her other senses take over. The first was her sense of smell. She recognized, however dimly, the scent in the air. She lifted up her right arm and sniffed. The smell was the same as in the air, faint, but there. She guessed that they lit the incense and rubbed the oil into her for...however long she was here. 'How long had she been here?' she wondered.
Sam didn't know how long she had slept, but the lengthened shadows on the wall indicated it was some time. She did, however, notice the shadow of the man in the chaise near her bed.

"You!" The word was whispered, but the edge and the anger came through with that one word.

"Ah, Ezili." The voice was honey smooth. Dambala walked over to the bed. His shoulder length black hair was carelessly tied behind his neck. He walked with a grace that belied his anticipation of being with her. "You are awake."

"Awake and angry. How dare you!" Sam's voice was still in a whisper, but it was the anger that kept it from reaching a louder tone.

"Angry, my dearest love? Why would you be angry?" He reached down and ran his hands on her face and her scalp, feeling the textures of her skin and her hair. "The last time we were together, you were anticipating our time together."

The bed suddenly dipped with his weight and he then pulled her up into a sitting position and keeping his arms around her to hold her up he smelled her hair and then with his right hand brought some strands to his lips.

"Ah I have missed you," he said, softly kissing her hair. He could feel her trying to pull away from him, so he tightened his hold on her.Dambala suddenly shifted his body and hers to that he could look at her. Even in her anger she was beautiful, passionate, his Ezili. But he knew that she buried her passion, buried it deep. He was going to bring it out and it would burn, but burn only for him. He took her chin in his left hand and with his right he traced her face, carefully, using his index finger to trace the fine blond colored eyebrows, her nose, her lips. Then he ran the fingers of that hand through her hair, rubbing as he went along to feel the silky texture. 'What is it about the women of the Tau'ri?' he wondered; their hair was so different. Not one had the same as the other, not even in color. "You will be mine, Ezili. I will wipe the memory of the other from your mind. You will burn only for me."

Without warning he grabbed her to him and kissed her, his tongue driving into her mouth and seeking hers to do battle with. His possession of her mouth was complete. He felt, rather than saw her defeat in her response, as tentative as it was, came. The kiss ended as swiftly as it has begun. Leaving the bed he walked over to the braziers and lit them. Out of the corner of his eye he had seen Sam trying to edge off the bed. In a language that Sam had never heard, Dambala had called for the attendants. The women swiftly came into the room and grabbed her and held her down for him. Dambala walked over with the bottle of oil that Sam knew well and she tried to buck away from him when he came to rub it into her.

"You may fight me now, my beloved, but you will give in. Your nature will not allow yourself to deny what you want," he told her in a voice that was meant to hypnotize and to command. Soon, the fight went out of her. At the first touch of the hand with the oil on her body, it started to do its work. Sam let out a low moan and then fell asleep. By the time Dambala had finished massaging her body, Sam was in a deep sleep. The oil, the smoke and her own exhaustion had combined to overpower her will.
Dambala released the attendants and watched her sleep for a little while. He knew that he would be wise to not stay much longer. His longing and need for her was becoming quite evident and overwhelming. Grabbing the bottle of oil, Dambala left her room. He knew that he needed to give his body the release it was looking for, actually hoping for, from Ezili, but Baka would have to do. Dambala was aware, on some level, that Baka felt threatened by this woman, but he new that he would be able to control her. He was always able to control her.

Daniel watched his friend sitting there, staring at basically nothing. The view of the gate from the briefing room was commanding, even in the silence, even in the stillness, even in the dark.

Jack O'Neill hadn't moved for the last hour. Since the breakup of the meeting with Jacob and his insistence that they find the former members of Dambala's worshipers, Jack sat and looked out over the 'gate room.

"Jack?" Daniel called out in a gentle voice.

'Yeah?" Jack answered, as if far away.

"We'll find her," Daniel said to him.

"I know," was the simple response."She'll be okay," Daniel ventured.

"Will she?" Jack answered back. "How do you figure that? Wishful thinking?" Jack suddenly stood up and turned to his friend. "How do you make it so?"

Daniel shrugged. "I guess I always do see the glass as half-full, Jack. I am as worried about her as ...you. But we have to be positive. Especially since she depends on us to be as convinced as she needs to be."

Jack swallowed and in a small voice told Daniel that it was hard enough to convince her the first time. "How much," he asked, not directly to Daniel, "do you think she will remember this time and how will it affect her? You tell me that." With that statement, Jack walked out of the briefing room.

Daniel Jackson walked over to the window that overlooked the 'gate room. His blue eyes started to tear up. With his vision starting to blur, he stared at the gate for a long five minutes and vowed that they would find her and do whatever they needed to do.

Colonel O'Neill's office was dark except for the desk lamp. After he left Dr. Jackson and the 'gate room, he headed toward his sanctuary. Yo-yo in hand, he was attempting to do 'walk the dog', but just couldn't get his hands to work right. A knock on his door brought him out of his thoughts.

"Come," he called out, still looking at the twisted mess that used to be the string of his yo-yo.

Dr, Janet Fraiser walked into his dark den.

"Colonel?"

"Yup!"

Janet flipped on the light and he blinked. "What can I do for you Doc?"

Janet sat down in the chair opposite him. "Do you remember what I gave you the last time you went to get her?"

Jack nodded, feeling his heart turn to stone.

Looking steadily into her dark eyes Jack told her in no uncertain terms that he wasn't doing that again. "I don't have the right to make that decision for her, Doctor Fraiser. I didn't the first time and I certainly, for sure, do not now.""Sir..." Janet began but Jack put down the yo-yo and put up his hands.

"Not a chance. Not this time. This time, she is going to know what went on and what her options are and whatever she decides, she will have our support." He sighed and put his hands down on his desk. "No matter what she decides, *I* will do whatever it is she wants, needs or desires. But I will not make that decision for her."

Janet looked into that narrowed and focused gaze and nodded. She figured he would turn it down flat. He suffered greatly the first time. Hoping that Sam would not figure that out and that she would believe that her implant protected her. He just didn't want the chance this time and didn't want to take away Sam's choices from her.

"All right, Colonel. Then that is what we will do. I will still put together something for her, but it will not contain that."
Jack nodded, satisfied that he would at least preserve her right to choose, especially since someone else was doing their damnedest to take that away from her now.

Baka was angry. The Chosen was with child. They didn't need a new Ezili. Damn Dambala and his obsession with that *woman*! Yes, that child would have been quite an addition to their people. But his rage when she went missing was something she had never seen before. Of course, no one had ever stolen a *Chosen* away from them either.

Well, she would give him some time to get over her. She had to admit his frustration at not being able to have his Ezili right now worked out for her. But things change.

Baka was sitting at her vanity having her hair brushed. The long blonde hair reached the small of her back. For the ceremonies it was left loose to cover her body or the worshiper she had chosen to join her. Now it was being braided. She liked the way the braids whipped around her when she moved. They way it seemed to writhe on Dambala when they joined. Almost like small serpents.

Once her hair was done, Baka dismissed her servants and waited for him. He was always more than ready after his visits with *HER*. Ezili had been with them for two weeks and she still fought them. Not as much as when she first came, but she still resisted Dambala. Baka could see that it both intrigued and irritated him.

Dambala's eyes burned. They turned to a hard golden color. He was watching her bathe. She seemed to take delight in having him there. She even stopped flinching when he would take the sponge and start to wash her. She practically purred while he was doing this. He encouraged her to lay back and let him minister to her and she had reached the point where she was actually touching his body. Not quite the ways he wanted or the way he wanted, but she touched him.

Under lowered lashes, Ezili watched him. As Ezili gained more strength in her possession of Sam's body, her passionate nature started to exert itself. Ezili found that her former self had a lot of repressed passion, passion that only seemed to come out in her work, but now it was starting to come out when Dambala came to her. Of course, some part of her was dimly aware that the incense and the oils had a lot to do with it.

With her bath finished, Dambala walked over with the drying cloth and assisted her out of the tub. Like Venus rising from the ocean, the water cascaded down her body and she stepped gracefully out of the tub into Dambala's waiting arms. She took great pleasure in having him dry off her body and no longer pulled away as he rubbed her more sensitive body parts.
It was getting more difficult to her to resist Dambala's sensual lure. He seemed to know where to touch and tease in order to heighten her awareness and need for him. And as before, she was starting to crave his touch and submitted herself to his hands and his mouth. Dambala hadn't, up until now, gone beyond touches. She knew however, that his patience was running out and that it would not be much longer. Sam Carter had not entirely disappeared and although Ezili had wanted more, Sam was not ready.

After Dambala had finished drying her, he led her to the bed where he had the bottle of oil ready for her. She submitted to his ministrations and her body, already sensitive to his touch gave itself over to the pleasure his hands and his fingers were giving her. It seemed as if her body was reaching out to his touch and that it wouldn't be satisfied until Dambala gave her the release that she wanted. As he had many nights before this one, he aroused her to the point where if he didn't satisfy her need, she would rub herself against him. She would writhe and roll her body onto his, seeking the release that she knew he could give her, would give her and soon.

After a prolonged period of teasing touches and tantalizing caresses, Dambala would use his mouth and his hands and watch her react and respond. When she had finally settled, he would kiss her hard and then hand her a goblet to help her sleep. The braziers were kept lit almost continually now. Dambala was getting impatient. He had to have her. Soon the Chosen one would give birth and they would need to complete the rituals and then decide what to do with ruby skinned woman. Baka had wanted her gone after the child was born. Any wet nurse would be able to care for the child, but Baka had deemed her not fit to continue to live among them. Dambala agreed this time. Ezili had all of his attention now and until he had what he wanted from her, Baka could do as she pleased.

Once he was sure Ezili was asleep, Dambala left for Baka's apartments. He knew that Baka was jealous of her but that was not his problem. Baka would need to deal with her jealous nature, or they would find a replacement for her. The animal spirit would not win against that of the snake, of that, he was certain.Walking into Baka's apartment, the dark-eyed blonde woman was waiting for him. She had anticipated his needs, yet again, and he smiled. Yes, this one had her uses. Maybe he would keep her after all.

"Incoming wormhole," Davis called out.

"Any ID code?" Hammond leaned over Davis' left shoulder, his hand on the man's right shoulder.

Davis looked at the screen for confirming information and answered. "It's the Tok'ra, sir."

"Thank God." George breathed. It had been three weeks since Major Carter was kidnapped and Jacob had come to help them look for his daughter.

"Open the iris," Hammond ordered and then headed to the ramp to greet his old friend.

"Jacob," Hammond greeted him. "What do you have for us?" As soon as he finished that question, he noticed the three other figures following Jacob Carter.

"News, George. We know where they are. But George, we don't have much time."

Hammond gave Jacob a sharp look and then led the four to the briefing room.

"Get O'Neill, Teal'c and Dr. Jackson," Hammond called out to a passing SF.

The five of them settled around the table to wait.

"George," Jacob started saying, "we have to move quickly."

"We will, Jacob. SG-1 and SG-3 have been ready since the beginning. I am sending Captain Marx and Dr. Sanderson with Jack and his team and the Marines from SG-3. I will have others standing by if we need them."

Soon Jack, Teal'c and Daniel came into the briefing room. Jack was still very controlled when he sat down but no one was fooled, least of all Sam Carter's father.

"What do you have for us Jacob?" Jack asked him.

"Let me introduce you to the people I brought with me. They will tell you everything that you need to know."Jacob then proceeded to introduce two women and one man. The three resembled the mixture of races that made up Dambala's people. They were tall and slender, but their features tended to be striking.

Aizan was the first to be introduced. Her almond shaped eyes were the color of a golden sunset and her hair was a shade of red that could only be described as burnished copper. Her skin color was the color of café au lait. Her accent was, at first, hard to understand, but the longer she spoke, the easier it became, almost as if it modified itself to the race that was listening to her speak.

Aizan told them that she had actually been sister to Aidea-Wedo, Dambala's mate.

"Wait a minute," Jack interrupted, "that pervert is married?"

The woman gave Jack a sharp look and smiled. "Was married," she corrected. "Baka had her killed."

Jack sat back in his chair. "Killed?" he asked quietly.

The woman nodded. "Yes, Baka saw her as a threat. Dambala, was too busy being amused by Baka at the time and it suited him to have his wife removed."

The other two gave similar stories. They looked enough alike to the Tau'ri to make them wonder if they were brother and sister. They were not. They were called Simbi, the man, and Sirene, the woman.

Each had the black obsidian eyes that Baka had, but that was where the resemblance ended. Their skin was almost translucent in color, to the point where one would swear that they could see their veins and arteries. Their hair color was white. Daniel would probably say that if it wasn't for their eyes, they would resemble an Albino race.

Sirene was to have been the next *Chosen*, but she and the Simbi, along with Aizan escaped after Aizen's sister was killed. Baka was on a rampage. She did not want the women around after the children were born. She had seen all of them as a threat to her power and position and most of all, to her place with Dambala.

"The thing that you must worry most about," Aizan informed them, "was not whether Dambala beds your major or not, given the chance he most certainly will, or even if he gets her with child..."

She looked directly at Jack. "You must worry that Baka will kill her, Make no mistake; Baka will have her murdered. Dambala's fascination with her makes her dangerous Baka and she will not tolerate that."

"What?" Jacob's word was strangled."Baka is, ordinarily, an extremely jealous woman. But your woman," again she looked at Jack, "is a threat to her. Dambala is intrigued by this version of Ezili. That makes her dangerous to Baka, whether she willingly is with Dambala or not does not matter. She will die."

"So," Jack said softly, "where are they holding her?"

"The homeworld is located at these co-ordinates." The man handed Hammond a slip of paper. "You must hurry. Dambala grows impatient."

"How much time do we have?" Jack asked him, his eyes narrowed and dark.

The man's black eyes were equally as hard and he answered him, "The end of this week. She is not quite ready, but he will not wait longer."

Jack nodded and looked to Hammond.

"So, how are we to do this?" Jack asked.

The man, Simbi, spoke up then. He pointed to O'Neill and said, " You look very much like him."

"Excuse me?" Jack's tone was shocked.

"You have his height and his build and..." Simbi smiled. "His arrogance."

The two women with him both smiled and nodded their agreement.

"If you would be able to disguise your hair and eye color, you would be able to pose as Dambala, easily."

Jack looked to the others to see if they thought these people were as cracked as he thought them to be.

"Please, Colonel, listen to me," Simbi pleaded. "This is our homeworld. You would not be able to hide your presence for very long. If you come disguised as Dambala you would be able to walk around without comment. No one knows when Dambala walks about the city. Part of his mystique is that people seem to see him everywhere. It enhances his power."

Aizan walked around the Colonel, eyeing him up and down and her smile grew bigger. She put her hands on his shoulders, his arms and his back, running her hands then down his face and really feeling his muscles. "Yes," Aizan announced, "he will do. It can work. But you must transform him quickly."

Jacob then stared at Jack, as did the others. The staring was making Jack very uncomfortable.

"General Hammond-" he started to plead his case.

"Colonel, this is not the first time you have had to disguise yourself for a job. If anyone can pull it off you can. Jacob?" Hammond looked over to his friend. "Are the Tok'ra able to pull off this disguise?"

Jacob nodded. "Yes, they have the necessary equipment. We can have him done today."

"Do it." Hammond looked at his incredulous Colonel. "No arguments, Jack. If it is going to be as difficult as they say, going in undercover is the only way to do this."

"Then I will also dress as O'Neill does." Teal'c spoke up. "I am Jaffa. There will be no questions if he has a body guard."
"Me too!" Daniel spoke up. "What?" he assessed the surprised looks. "Someone needs to translate and they already know what Captain Marx looks like."

Hammond flicked his hand and told Jacob to take the three of them.

Simbi went with Jacob and the men of SG-1 for the transformation. When Jack came out of the room, Simbi almost hid behind Jacob.

The transformation was complete. Jack's natural arrogance still came out, even when skeptical. The gold contacts completely obscured the dark brown of his eyes and the black wig that brushed his shoulders gave Jack the look of an ancient warrior.
The oiled body showed off his muscles and his physique. Jack O'Neill, for being a lean muscled man, was a powerful one. His body showed not an ounce of body fat and the power in him was evident, more so by his comfort with his near naked body. O'Neill was a man who was comfortable in his own skin. That was good for the job they needed to do.

With a quiet voice, Jacob asked Simbi if that was what Dambala looked like.

"So close," Simbi answered him, "they could be brothers."The men fell silent. Jack turned to look at himself in the mirror and looked stone faced into the man looking back at him. Jack O'Neill had most certainly disappeared.

After a few long minutes, Jack announced it was time to get back to the SGC and head out.

Azian and Sirene were sitting at the table in the briefing room. They were anxious to go back into hiding. They still feared that Dambala and Baka would know where they were and what they had done.

Neither one of them had expected the man they most feared to walk into the room and the site of Dambala coming in with all the ease of a man familiar with his surroundings sent them into paroxysms of fear. The screaming and the crying sent the SF's and Simbi into the room.

It was all the man could do to calm the women down.

"It is not he. I swear it," he told them. "It is the human Colonel O'Neill that is here before you. Please..." He turned his own fearful eyes to the men of the Tau'ri. The women he held in his arms were past hysterical.

Jack, hard-eyed, left the room.

It gave Simbi and the medical team time to take the woman to the infirmary and treat them.

Hammond could only look at his officer when he came back in. He could only look at the three of them. Of the three Daniel seemed to be most uncomfortable with his disguise, but Jack and Teal'c had settled in very quickly. Only Jack's eyes gave away that the fact that the fear of the woman affected him. But it was only a brief reaction and only noted by those who knew him well.

"You have a go, Colonel," Hammond told them. "Be careful and Godspeed."

As those in the briefing room dispersed, Jacob quickly ran after Jack. "O'Neill," he called out.

Jack stopped and turned to look at the older man. It appeared to Jack that Jacob aged greatly since Sam was taken.
"What is it, Jacob?" Jack asked him."Watch out for my little girl," Jacob told him simply. "You are probably the only man I trust with her safety, Jack."

Jack's face did not change. How much Jacob knew about Jack's feelings for Sam, he could only guess at. But Jack knew that Jacob trusted him when it came to her safety.

Jack was standing alone outside of the 'gate room gathering his thoughts when Simbi approached him.
'I must talk with you," Simbi said to him in a quiet voice.

Jack nodded.

"When you present yourself to others as Dambala, you must do it as if you mean it. It is most important when you are with Baka and with Ezili."

Simbi stopped talking to try and look into the eyes of the man who was before him. The gold contacts had hidden the man's color from him, but not his soul.

"You must especially when you are with Ezili. You must act as if you mean to have this woman. If you have any desire for this woman in your heart, you must let it come out."

"She's an officer under my command. I can't do that," Jack responded.

Simbi shook his head and put his left hand on Jack's right shoulder.

"You must forget about the military requirements Colonel O'Neill. You must do this with your heart. In order for anyone to believe you are *HE*, and that you want this woman, you must allow yourself to want her. If her heart beats for you, as yours does for her, you must allow your heart to do the talking. Your heart must reach out to that of Samantha Carter or you will not free her from Ezili's possession. You may hide from others what your true heart feels, but you cannot hide it from me. And," he paused, "you must not hide it from her. Let your heart beat for hers. Let your heart talk for you. It is the only way."
Jack stared into the man's eyes and then nodded.

He walked into the 'gate room with Simbi's words pounding into his head. If her heart beats for you, as yours does for her. Yeah, that about sums it up, Jack thought. Once more into the abyss.

Hammond and the others watched as the wormhole disengaged behind SG-1 and SG-3. A cold shiver had run down his back as Jack had turned to them before stepping through. If he had not known for sure who that black-haired, gold-eyed man was, he would not have seen his officer looking back at him.

The 'gate was in area that was a lush and verdant as any primitive world could be.

The perfumes of the plants and the flowers hung heavy in the air. There were some animal sounds off in the distance, but nothing near the 'gate. The team noticed a platform by the 'gate platform, almost like the one on the other planet. The vague scent of the incense hung in the air, but no human presence was noted.

"Marx." Jack called out to the Captain. "You guys find a place to hide and watch the 'gate. Under no circumstances allow it to fall into their hands. I want you out of sight and protected."

"Yes sir!" Ethan Marx responded quickly and gathered SG-3 to make themselves as invisible as possible.

"Teal'c, Daniel, with me," Jack ordered quickly.

The three men then went on their way to the village.

The walk to the village unnerved them a little. With Daniel and Teal'c on either side of Jack, acting as body guards, the villagers would run out and prostate themselves on the ground. Some of the men of the village would force their women out in front and begging for Dambala to just touch them.

Teal'c whispered that it would be best for him to keep his eyes forward and act as if he didn't seem them.

"Wouldn't that be a little rude? Jack asked.

"Not rude, ruthless. You must appear to not care very much about the lower cast people, it is your arrogance that appeals to them." Teal'c instructed him

So the walk continued that way until they reached the largest dwelling in the village.

Jack noted that it was made of the same stone that they had seen before, but this time there were windows and some rooms had bars on them.

"Major Carter must be in one of those rooms, O'Neill," Teal'c whispered.Suddenly a voice called out; "Dambala!" A man ran up and prostrated himself on the ground before Jack. "Master, forgive my forwardness, but our Mistress requests your presence."

Jack turned to look at Teal'c who roughly grabbed the man and pulled him up.

Jack looked at the man and made sure that he had eye contact. Nodding to Teal'c to answer the man. Teal'c told him that his Master would forgive his forwardness, this time, only because his Mistress had sent him, but not to forget himself the next time.

The man bowed and hurried away.

Jack breathed a sigh. "I have not heard Dambala talk, Teal'c. I don't know if I sound anything like him."

"You are just going to have to not have a conversation with Baka," Daniel ventured.

"And how, do you suppose I don't do that?" Jack asked.

Daniel pulled a vial out of his pocket. "Janet thought you might need a fast acting amnesiac." He gave Jack a small vial of Rohypnal.

"The date rape drug?" Jack asked him. "What?"

Daniel nodded. "It will knock her out and she won't remember anything."

Jack gave Daniel a black look and asked. "When did you decide that we needed that with us?"

"Janet and I..." Daniel started and stopped, shocked at the look of anger in Jack's eyes. "Jack, we didn't do it to give to you or Sam. I swear. Janet and I worried about Baka coming on to you and..."

Daniel blushed and tried to continue, but at the softening of Jack's eyes he stopped talking.

"I believe you," Jack said quietly. "What do I do with it?"

"Mix it into her drink. According to Janet the combination of Rohypnal and alcohol can cause blackouts that will last about eight hours. It works in about 30 minutes. It has no odor or taste and as long as you don't mix up the cups, you can just sit and wait for it to react and leave."

"Don't you think anyone would wonder if Baka suddenly passed out?""Well, if Dambala is as infatuated with Sam as we are told, they may think that he did it deliberately and would keep quiet about it. It will also give you an excuse not to talk to her," Daniel finished.

"Okay," Jack answered, dubious tones in his voice. "Let's do it. I need to be able to look around."

The three men went into the building to find Baka's room. Several times they ducked out of site when they heard voices. Jack's concern was they didn't want him to meet himself coming around the corner. Luck had held for them and they found Baka's rooms.

Teal'c and Daniel led the way in, followed by Jack.

Baka stunned the men. Jack had never really seen her up close. She was a beautiful woman, there was no question about that, but her self-absorption and her air of self-importance were evident. They came upon her rising up out of her bath and none of the three could help the physical reaction they had to her.

Baka took note and laughed. Then she dismissed her women. Wrapping the drying cloth around her she walked up to Daniel and then dropped the towel at his feet.

"Finish drying me," she ordered.

Daniel swallowed and looked to Teal'c and Jack. Jack nodded. He felt that she was putting on the show for Dambala and was going to play it.

Daniel bent down, picked up the towel and proceeded to massage Baka's body. All the while she kept her eyes on Jack. It was as if she was daring him to do...something.

Jack saw how uncomfortable Daniel was, snapped his fingers and pointed to the door. Daniel dropped the towel and he and Teal'c backed out of the room and stood guard outside. No-one noticed Teal'c placing the vial next to the carafe on her dresser.

"You are very quiet tonight, Dambala. Do you have nothing to say?" she taunted.

He just smiled at her and walked up to her and pulled her against him. She purred appreciatively and rubbed herself against his thigh and then loosened the loincloth.

Laughing, he took her head between his hands and kissed her. Part of Jack couldn't help his physical response. Her bathing oils, like the massage oil and the incense was meant to inflame the senses and they did. He couldn't help that he was responding to her nearness, but he used it to his advantage. It hid that he was not Dambala and was also able to have her believe his response to her was real. Pulling his lips free from hers, he proceeded to kiss her neck and her ears and finally her breasts. He led her to the bed, had her lay down and then went over to where the wine was. Without her noticing, Jack opened the vial that Teal'c had planted by the carafe. He put the pill into one of the goblets and offered it to Baka. She took the drink without comment and drained it. She tossed the empty goblet to the floor and pulled him onto the bed. Laying him on his back, she proceeded to lay on top of him and started to make her version of love to him. Jack managed to hold her off with kisses and touches and didn't say a word. Within the promised half an hour, she fell asleep on him and Daniel and Teal'c came in and helped settle her into bed. Without a backwards look, they left.

"Damn," Jack said, "That was too close." His body was still alive with the need for release and he had to take several deep breaths while putting the cloth back on in order to continue their search for Sam.

Jack pulled the air into his lungs in big gulps. He wondered if the stuff would ever work itself out of his system. He had been so close to losing control with that woman, he didn't even want to consider what would have happened had they not drugged her.

Teal'c silently watched the struggle in his friend. To be that much of a slave to emotions and desires weakened a warrior. He was more than just impressed by O'Neill's self control. He could very easily had his way with that woman and walked away, but it was not part of that man's makeup to give into those desires he knew to be wrong.

A look passed between the two warriors and Jack felt that his esteem in Teal'c's eyes went up another notch.
Daniel then spoke up. "What to we do now?" he asked.

"'We'..." Jack answered, pointing to himself and Daniel. "Will do nothing. Teal'c is going to look around. You and I are going to get some distance from this place."

"Jack don't you think all three of us should go and get her?"

Jack, already impatient because his body hadn't quite settled down, responded with more heat than he intended.
"You know Daniel, you are absolutely the master of the understatement."

Daniel blinked and retorted. "Why? Because I am telling you something you already know? Then if you do know, why wait?""Daniel." Jack said with some humor in his voice, but not the kind of humor that boded well. "You are absolutely the master of the understatement and..." He suddenly raised his gold colored eyes to look directly into Daniel's blue ones. "if you continue in that vein, I will personally knock you into next week. And, in case it has escaped your razor sharp mind, I Am Not In A Good Mood."

The three of them fell into silence after that and then Jack placed his right arm on Jackson's back and gave it a pat and then looked at Teal'c.

"T..." Jack said in a calmer voice, "I need you to skirt around the place and look around. Find out where she is and what is going on in and around the room. Danny and I are going to walk into the woods and I am going to try and walk off this mood."

Teal'c nodded and went off. Jack grabbed Daniel by the arm and they headed off to the woods.

It appeared almost fortuitous that they did so. Dambala and his entourage entered the area Jack had been minutes after they left. And as Teal'c had predicted, no one thought anything of his sudden comings and going.

Teal'c walked down the hall and ducked into various rooms and corners. He did not wish to be seen. He realized that he was a tall man, remarkably different than most of Dambala's entourage, although there were some big and tall attendants to him. Not too many wore the mark of Apophis on their foreheads. He wondered how no one seemed to comment upon it. He wondered if their awe of Dambala kept them from really looking at the people around him. If that was true, then it was an advantage that they did not know they had.

After thirty minutes of searching Teal'c came onto the rooms of Major Carter. As he was going to check out the guards and the layout of the room, he heard voices.

"Dambala," Teal'c thought.

The timbre of the voice was almost like O'Neill's but a twist to the accent was apparent.

"Ezili!" the voice called out.

Teal'c heard Sam's answering call back to him and maneuvered himself into a position where he would be able hear what was going on, if he could not see.After a few minutes, Teal'c was glad the he could not see, he was uncertain as to whether or not Dambala would be longer among the living, had he been able to see.

Teal'c could hear Dambala attempting to still seduce the woman. He could smell the incense from the braziers and the perfume of the oils being used. He heard from Dambala's tone that Major Carter was attempting to assert control over the situation and he could also hear that Dambala's patience was at an end.

"It appears Ezili," Dambala said with his anger evident. "That despite my best efforts you still fight me. That ends..." He then took his right hand from her throat and put it on her right breast and pinched the nipple until she squirmed. "Tomorrow night. I would end this torture for both of us now, but I have other duties. " He then snapped his fingers and a servant came by with a goblet.

Forcing it down her throat, he hissed into her ear; "This will keep you from taking it into your head to try something foolish, my dearest one."

He held her for a few more minutes and then she collapsed in his arms.

"Keep the incense fires burning and apply the oils," he directed sharply, and left the room.

The servants came over and one of them lifted Ezili from the floor and placed her in the bed. Then they tenderly ministered to her.

Teal'c's face was hard when he finally left her apartments. A low whistle directed him to O'Neill and Daniel Jackson, and he found the two men sitting on a log near a lake.

"It is worse than we feared, O'Neill."

Jack looked up and stared directly into Teal'c's dark eyes. They were dark with the intensity of a man on a mission. "What?" he asked.

"Dambala intends to do whatever he plans tomorrow night. It appears as if MajorCarter is still fighting him and he has lost patience. She has a strong spirit, O'Neill, to be able to fight this long."

Jack nodded. "Guess we go in tomorrow night."

Teal'c nodded and then told them the layout of her apartments, the number of entrances and exits and the number of guards.
"We will have to drug both of them, O'Neill." Teal'c told them at last. "Unless Baka makes it a habit to be bedded by Dambala every night or he intends to keep her otherwise occupied. There is no other choice."

"Ah choiceless." Jack said sarcastically. "My most favorite of the choice categories."

"Well..." Daniel ventured. "One of us could drug Baka and the other grab Dambala when he attempts to enter Sam's room."

"Are you volunteering, Danny?" Jack questioned him sharply.

"Well...no!" Daniel answered him. "But I will if that is what we have to do."

Jack sighed. "No... I have a better chance of doing it as Dambala. Right now, let's find Marx and the rest and let them know what we are doing. They are going to have to hold the door open for us. We may have to run for it."

"O'Neill." Teal'c called to him as they got up to find the SG team.

Jack turned to look at him.

"Be prepared to be more involved with Baka than you were last time."

Jack didn't need to ask Teal'c what he meant. He knew. Baka would not be content with a few kisses and caresses and it may involve him being ...involved.

Jack nodded and they headed out.

As they neared the gate Jack let out a whistle, which was answered. Out of the bushes came Captain Marx.

"Sir?" Ethan Marx's green eyes showed the darkened strain of a man hiding his fear, anger and concern.

Jack and the other two men noted that Marx and his men all showed the strain of soldiers in hiding.

"Did something happen?" Jack questioned."Well...." Ethan began. "We had to hide quite low a few times. That guy.. looks so much like you, sir, we practically had to wait until the last minute before we let ourselves be known."

"How did you know it was him and not me?" Jack asked.

"He is a mean SOB." Marx told him." He was cuffing his attendants almost continually. Also, we didn't see Teal'c or Dr. Jackson and that would have ordinarily given him away, but we couldn't be sure that you weren't forced to take others."
Marx gave a slight smile. "With respect, Colonel, you have been known to smack recalcitrant rookies upside the head on occasion, but not just because."

Jack smiled back. "Well, good thing that you took precautions. But we have our work cut out."

Jack and Teal'c proceeded to draw out the structure of the dwelling. How many guards were posted and where? The windows that lead from Sam's apartment had bars, they were told. What they would need to blow the bars? Daniel and Teal'c would be carrying spear like weapon that Teal'c carried now.

"We may have to go like hell," Jack finished. "I hope that we don't have to carry Major Carter to the gate, but we will if necessary." Jack was also hoping they wouldn't have to carry him to the gate either. He was going to get a lung full of that smoke and the oil and wasn't sure how he was going to fight through it this time. Teal'c had told him that Dambala was going to really intensify his efforts and that probably meant the strongest dose of that stuff that they have.

Teal'c carried the bag with their clothes, including the supplies for Major Carter.

"I should kill him this time," Jack told them as they went back to the village.

"As tempting that would be," Teal'c responded, "that would not be wise. We do not know what that would do or what they would do. Maybe they would decide the Tau'ri and their women are not worth the effort." Teal'c smiled evilly then "But it would weaken him and them in the eyes of their people."

Jack smiled back and had a small laugh. "Yeah it would, wouldn't it?"

Clapping each man separately on the back, they continued on.

They hid the packs by the lake. And then waited until the next night.

Teal'c took a position near Sam's apartments. Daniel waited near Dambala's apartment.

"Someone has to be there to drug him when you bring him. Just get him there." Daniel promised them. "I will take care of that."
Jack nodded and waited for Dambala to make his visit to the Temple. He always seemed to head to the Temple to 'visit' with the ruby skinned woman before he ventured to Sam or even Baka. Almost as if he wanted an easy conquest first to get him ready for the real battles.

Jack then went to Baka's apartment. He already had the carafe of wine ready.

Baka was surprised to see Dambala walk in with the wine.

She also was surprised to see him walk in without the dangerous sexual need that he usually came to her with.
"Dambala?" she almost purred with her question. She was sitting on her bed brushing her own hair. Her nude body already showing the sheen of the oil used to massage into her body.

Jack walked in silently and put the tray with the carafe and the goblets down. He slowly turned to her and removed his loincloth.

Baka's obsidian eyes opened wide at how casual his action was.

He slowly walked over to the bed in order to sit down, but Baka put her hand up and motioned for him to wait. He watched her saunter over to each of the braziers that she lit and watched silently as she threw the powder with the incense into each one.
Her eyes shined with admiration for his form. Jack thought that somehow the scent must be a fast acting aphrodisiac that blinded the user to everything but the need to mate. He had to be different in some aspects from Dambala, but Baka didn't seem to see anything amiss.

"Ah Dambala, you honor me. You come to me before her." She walked over to him and wrapped herself around him. She pressed her body so close to his and started to writhe and rub herself against him.

Jack could not help the physical reaction he had to her actions. He could feel his blood start to rush and start to move heavily through his body, [particularly to his groin area. His penis started to swell and to grow hard as well and the pleasure of her movements worked to overcome Jack's own reticence. His mind screamed at him to give her the drugged wine, but his body was calling for release. Whatever it was they used it was more powerful than he remembered from last time.

He allowed her to lead him to the bed and she pushed him down onto the massive bed. She placed herself in full body to body contact. There was not a part of her that did not touch him and his arms wrapped around her pulling her even closer to his body.

Her mouth settled upon his and coaxed his open. Her tongue invaded his mouth and eventually his tongue joined hers in battle.
Jack's mind, however, still continued to battle his body for control and eventually when Baka released his mouth and reared up to look at him, it was able to gain a measure of control.

Gently pushing her from him, he went over to the table, poured wine into the goblet and handed her one. Drinking deeply from his goblet he motioned for Baka to do the same. She smiled and then downed hers quickly.

"Come, Dambala. I am no longer interested in playing, I am interested in joining."

She went and lay down on the bed and beckoned for him.

Jack walked over and joined her on the bed and proceeded to use his lips, his teeth and his tongue to tease and to tantalize her. Several times he had to gently and non-to-gently remove her from being on top of his body and attempting to mount him. He was always able to do something else to distract her, but he was finding that it was becoming more difficult to even hold off his own need.

He prayed that he would be able to keep her satisfied this way until the drug worked. It was the longest time of his life, just when he thought he might have to give her what she wanted, she passed out.

Jack rolled on his back and gave a great big sigh. He had to take time to breath, even knowing that he would be breathing in more of the scent.

Looking down at the sleeping woman, he carefully got out of bed. Stopping only to grab his loincloth, Jack walked steadily down the hall to Sam's apartment. Rounding the corner, Jack came face to face with his nemesis.

Both men stood stock still and stared at each other, each taking the measure of the counterpart. Dambala started to open his mouth to call for his attendants when Jack brought up his right fist and slammed it into Dambala's jaw. Dambala dropped down like dead weight. Jack hefted the man and threw him over his shoulder and walked the short distance to the man's apartments.
Daniel came out and helped Jack bring Dambala into the room. Daniel brought out a syringe and injected the unconscious man.
"Injectable Rohypnal?" Jack asked.

Daniel shook his head. "Nope. Just one of your run of the mill tranquilizers."

Jack nodded and then instructed Daniel to drug him again if should he awaken before they got away. Daniel agreed and settled down to watch the now tied up man.

Jack left the apartment and headed to Sam's. He immediately dispatched the guards. They thought he was their master and allowed him to enter her room.

His heart swelled. She was laying on the bed in the nightgown he remembered from the last time. It lay in a pool around her. Her blonde hair was slightly longer than before, laying like a fan around her head, her face pillowed on her left hand.

A feeling of tenderness and lust overwhelmed him at the same time. He came over to the bed and watched her sleep for a few minutes. The need to protect her and to mate with her was one and the same.

He could only stand near the bed, torn. He wanted her so badly, wanted that powerful feeling of his body and hers. The joining that kept him awake nights and haunted her dreams as well.

Some demon seemed to almost take hold of him then. Dambala had pulled out all the stops, no doubt. Jack noticed all the lit braziers and the heavy scent in the room. He had learned from Teal'c that they had been going almost continually since the day before. They had constantly exposed her to the smoke and to the oil, the oil that they messaged into her body, her hair and her bath.

Jack pulled the wig off his head and scrubbed at his own silver strands and then took the contacts out his eyes and they were once more the deep and velvet colored brown that was familiar.

He walked over and sat on the bed, conscious of his own nudity and his body's response to just being near her. Shaking her right shoulder he called out to her.

"Sir?" she slurred sleepily, obviously, under the drug's influence. Her eyes showed some scant sign of recognition. But before Jack could breathe a sigh of relief, her eyes changed.

They were still the bluebonnet blue they had always been, but a different light shone through them.

"Dambala?" she asked, and then she rolled on to her back smiled at him. "My beloved. You have come?"

"Sam, we have to go." Jack told her. He was trying very hard to not lean down and kiss her. His body told him. His heart told him too.

Vaguely, he remembered Simbi telling him that he must let his heart talk to hers. To let his heart beat for hers.

Giving in to the desire, he leaned down and kissed her. At first his lips were gently touching hers, but the kiss started to go far beyond the gentle very quickly.

Jack had his hands on either of her head and was trying to not move so quickly and decisively into where his body was demanding he go. But he lost the battle when her right hand suddenly moved and wrapped itself around his head and pulled his head closer to her.

She opened her mouth and that was all the impetus he needed to deepen their kiss. Suddenly his hands were no longer holding his body up, but were wrapped in her hair as his body settled on hers.

The sound that she made when his body relaxed against hers was both one of triumph and of need.

Jack then started to move. He opened the frogs that held her nightgown onto her body and slowly peeled it off. She lifted her body in order to assist him and then pulled him back to her.

They were, at that point, Body-to-body, skin-to-skin, muscle-to-muscle and bone-to-bone attached. He moved himself so that no part of her body was untouched by his. He kept his hands wrapped in her silky strands and took possession of her mouth. He felt that this was the only reason he was still breathing. That when he breathed in, she breathed out.

They were one person.

He took his mouth from hers and she made a protesting sound that was cut short and changed to one of pleasure. He started to use his mouth, his tongue and his fingers to pleasure her. He kissed her hair and breathed in its fragrance, reveling and relishing the touch of it in his fingers and his mouth. He then moved to her ears. Breathing softly into her right one, he tickled her left with his right hand and then moved to the fluttering pulse in her neck. He kissed and licked that beating vein and relished the taste of her.

"Let me," her voice quietly pleaded, but Jack laughed and continued his onslaught.

Placing his head on her chest he could both hear and feel her heart beating and it seemed as if it was beating in time to his.
He started to nuzzle at her breasts and once again Sam attempted to change their positions. He again used his height and his weight to keep her beneath him. Part of him felt that if he remained in the dominant position he would and could maintain control of the situation.

His mouth suckled at her breasts and his fingers kneaded them. Her body started to writhe with the pleasure caused by his touch and she continued to try to move into a position to touch him.

"I need to touch you," she pleaded.

He lifted his head and his eyes looked into hers. They were dark to the point of almost being black. Her pupils were dilated with her desire. Her arms and her legs were restless and moving. Her hands were rubbing themselves up and down on whatever part of his body she could touch and her legs continually stroked against his, up and down. He remembered thinking that she was satin to his skin and then continued to move down her body.

Her stomach gave a slight jump as his mouth found her belly button and he stuck his tongue in it. She laughed. It was a throaty sound and his body gave a small jolt.

Continuing his mouth's journey down her body, he settled himself between her thighs and alternately kissed and nibbled on the inside, every once in a while blowing on the area that was nestled between them. He noted the pearly essence that was starting to show itself on the small nub that was most sensitive to his touch. As if he could no longer help himself, he touched it. Softy. Reverently. Her body shuddered ever so slightly and more moisture appeared. He heard her softly plead for him to really touch her, to really make believe he was real. He obliged by lightly licking the sensitive nub and his body started to make its own desires known.

He could feel that he was getting ready to have his own body's reactions to what he was doing. Her hands then found his head and practically pushed his mouth onto her and understood what it was she wanted. Taking his hands in hers, he held on and then started kissing and licking and sucking her. Her sounds of desire egged him on to the point where just toying with her body was no longer content with that being acceptable.

Jack suddenly lifted her legs over his shoulders and poised himself to enter her. It would be a swift and easy entrance. Her body was more than ready, as was his.

But a part of his control seemed to assert itself at that time and he stopped. His body was demanding the completion, but his brain was demanding the attention.

He looked into her eyes and commanded her to look deep into his.

"Look at me," he ordered, wanting her full attention on him. He needed to know and he needed her to know.
"What?" her voice held the softly desired tinged tone.

"Who am I?" he asked her. He willed her to say who it was.

It took a few minutes for the words to sink into her brain. It was fogged by desire, by need, the drugs.
"Ja...Jack."

"That's right." He swallowed.

"And who wants this? Sam or Ezili?"

Her body tried to shift to force him to complete the act, but he held himself away from her.

"Answer me," he demanded. The top of his penis was poised at the entrance to her vagina. It seemed to move on its own and tickle her, and it caused her body to buck towards it. But still he held himself back.

"Answer me," he demanded again.

Some part of her realized that he needed to know that it was him and not Dambala.

"We both do," she finally answered.

Jack looked at her for a long minute, wondering if that would be enough of a response to settle his conscience
However a quiet plea broke through his doubts. She made the one request that he had never been able to deny.
"Please..." she said softly. The word hung between them for only a few seconds before "...Jack."

It was as if the doubts were erased with those two simple words and Jack swiftly entered her. The connection was pure and simple and when he moved within her, her body answered his with movements of its own.

They truly became one person. Allowing her legs to slide off his shoulders, they were connected to each other. Body-to-body, skin-to-skin, muscle-to-muscle, bone-to-bone. And when his mouth came down on hers and they drew breath one from the other. It was if when one breathed in the other breathed out. Her heart did indeed beat for his, as his did for her. They let their hearts touch and talk, one to the other. And as he took her to the stars with him, Simbi's words followed him. And he understood.

The next thing Jack saw was Teal'c shaking him awake.

Jack sat up holding his head in his hands and looking with confused eyes at his friend.

"Fear not, O'Neill," Teal'c assured him. "Your secrets are as safe with me, as are your lives."

Jack nodded and looked around for something to wear and then realized that it didn't matter to Teal'c or himself, if he was nude, but Carter was a different matter.

Teal'c nodded and turned his back, while Jack pulled Carter's gown back on her.

"Take her, T," Jack told him. "I am going for Daniel."

"Are you certain?" The Jaffa asked him.

Jack nodded and answered." Yeah, you are strong enough to carry her. Danny can help me walk out. We'll meet at the lake."
Teal'c leaned over and picked up the woman without effort. She was a tall woman, but it required no great strain for him.
Teal'c headed out of the room and Jack made his way to Dambala's quarters.

Daniel was still there and at Jack's look told him that he gave Dambala another dose and he should, with luck, be out for a few more hours.

Daniel then got up and went to his friend. Putting Jack's right arm around his shoulders, they left and headed toward the lake.
When they got there Sam was already sitting up against a tree and was starting to wake up. She looked up at Jack, groggily, and noted his state of undress. For a moment Jack was afraid of what her reaction would be, but she nodded and said nothing. Jack directed Teal'c to help her to the lake and give her some clothes. He had hoped, like last time, the clear air and the water would start waking her up. Jack had hoped it would do the same for him.

Daniel stood by for him, as Teal'c did for Carter.

Although they were a scant few feet apart, they may have been inches. Jack was as aware of her ministrations as she was of his.

He wished that he could work up some remorse for what happened. He knew that they were both aware of what they had done. There were no surprises or secrets or subterfuge. Even in the cold of water, his body grew heated thinking of what she felt and tasted like to him. He doubted that his memory would go away anytime soon.

Sam was feeling much the same as he was. Her body had been alive to his touches and his kisses. She knew that the dreams she would have now would not be those of a man with raven tresses or golden eyes, but of the colors silver and brown. She tried to wonder if she should apologize or pretend, but then she knew that she was as aware of what was going on, because he had asked and she had answered. Had she answered 'Dambala', he would have stopped.

The truth is, they were both aware of the other and that pretense and remorse and apologies were just not going to cut it.
"Newton's third law," she thought, ruefully. "For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction."

They both very quickly finished and then Jack radioed for Marx to open the gate because they were on their way.

Daniel supported Jack on the way to the gate, to be aided by Marx when they arrived there. Teal'c just picked up Sam and carried her. They had watched her struggle to walk the few feet from the water to the tree line, so Teal'c carried her. As embarrassing as it was for her, falling would have been worse.

General Hammond was quiet as he watched them return through the gate. He said nothing, only pointed to the direction of the infirmary and they went.

Daniel nodded to him and only said 'Later' to the General's unspoken questions.

After the two officers were placed under the very capable care of Dr. Janet Fraiser, Daniel, Teal'c, and Captain Marx reported to General Hammond.

Hammond and the rest of the SGC kept watchful and saddened eyes on Colonel O'Neill and Major Carter. The withdrawal was harder this time. Dr. Fraiser speculated that the drug was of a stronger dosage in order for them to control Sam. If the Colonel had been exposed to that large of a dose, it had to clear his system as well.

Once released, Hammond ordered both of his officers to take some leave time. Sam chose to stay in town and she had Janet to provide the comfort that only a good woman friend could provide.

Jack, predictably, headed off to the wilds of Minnesota where only the woods and the quiet pond with 'no pesky fish' in it would be his only concerns.

The month flew by quickly and soon both officers were to return to work.

It ended up being another one of those nights for Jack. The usual dose of Jack Daniels was not helping and he was tired of being drunk all of the time. When he awoke this night he went to the solace of the stars. His telescope was ready. It always was on these cool and clear Colorado nights. He looked at the stars and became so entranced at the various constellations that he didn't hear the sound of a car pulling into his driveway. He didn't hear the crunch of footsteps on the ground below or the creaking of someone climbing up the ladder. It was scent of shampoo that caught his attention. There was only one person that used that particular brand. He smiled ruefully.

"Hey Carter," he said softly.

"Hey sir," was her equally soft answer.

Jack turned around to look at her. The night sky was behind her. The stars and the clear night almost made her shimmer.
So much can be conveyed by a look, a grimace, a lift of the shoulder, and the blink of an eye.

So much can be said in quiet as well. They knew that way of communicating very well. They had, for so many years conveyed so much with just looks and smiles and nods. It served them well then. It served them well now.

Looking up at the night sky, she pointed and asked if that particular constellation was Cassiopeia.

Jack laughed and said "C'mere."

She came over and sat down in the chair he vacated. He pointed the telescope in the direction he wanted and pointed.
"That..." he said pointing to a configuration of stars, that he knew she was very much aware of what it was and where it was, "...is Cassiopeia." He stepped back from the chair Sam was sitting on.

Jack noticed everything about her now. The way she breathed, smelled, tasted and felt. All of this, right now, without even touching her. Without being near to her.

After a few minutes he saw her turn away from the telescope to face him. The cool air brought her breaths out in a cloud and he noted how dark her eyes seemed in the starry night.

Jack raised an eyebrow; he knew she was going to say something.

And she did.

"Sir?" she started. She stopped suddenly and he noted the fine sheen of tears in her eyes.

Kneeling down beside her he took her chin in his right hand and used his left thumb to wipe away the tell tale moisture under her eyes.

"We can leave it in the room, Carter." he told her quietly. "It will be hard, but it can be done."

He noted the slight flare to her nostrils when he said that. "We can do whatever you want. But don't ask or even tell me to forget."

Jack saw the gentle swing of her hair as she shook her head. "I don't think I want you to ...forget." she said softly. "I don't even know if I want to forget. But..."

"...where do we go from here?" he finished for her.

The nod she gave him was slow and cautious.

"I don't know, Carter." He stood up as quickly as his knees would let him and rubbed his head and then put his hands in his pocket.

Turning from her he looked out over the roof to the neighbor's yard.

Sighing, Jack knew that whatever decision the two of them made this night, would not only affect them.

She trusted him. Trusted him with more than just her life. He knew that. He also knew that he trusted her the same way. That no matter what decision they made, trust was going to be the biggest factor.

Could he let her just walk away as if nothing happened or nothing existed? He didn't know the answer to that. He also guessed that she didn't either.

Then there was the question of her safety and...well if truth be told, his too. Dambala and Baka would not be finished with them. Twice they had managed to thwart them. There was the slim chance that they may feel that Sam was too much of a bother to go after, but then there was also the chance that they may want to, because that was their nature. They are, after all, Goa'uld. Sense had very little to do with their actions.

Jack turned back to his officer. The expectant look in her eyes matched his.

"So again Carter." His voice soft, but very determined. "We can do whatever you want. I will support your decision. But remember this..."

Her eyes looked directly into his at that moment. Luminous.

"There will come a time when that room will need to be opened-re-arranged-cleaned out. Are you prepared for that?"
He then turned away from her. He wondered if she ever thought about that. He wondered if she ever even considered it. He did. In the dark of night, when the twin demons of lust and desire teased at his at his senses and his memories.